Nebraska Policymakers Reach Consensus on Early Childhood Legislation, Based on Recent Scientific Findings

Testimony of local academic experts combines with evidence from a national group of scientists to rally bipartisan support for bill

Abstract: A case study of Nebraska early childhood legislation, passed unanimously in 2005, shows the role of science in effective policymaking. By combining citizen advocacy, skillful work by legislators, and testimony by local experts as well as national scientists, Nebraska succeeded in producing bipartisan consensus on the importance of early childhood education and development. Legislators determined that the goals of supporting children and achieving high economic and social returns for public funds can both be served by investing in early childhood programs.

Sometimes lawmakers really do see eye-to-eye. Add the impartial testimony of some of the nation’s leading scientists, and you have a potent recipe for long-term planning. In 2005, the Nebraska Legislature reached across party lines to pass, by a vote of 42-0, a bill ensuring funding for early childhood education programs for children in most need.

The legislation, drafted as LB 577, was approved by Gov. Dave Heineman on June 3, 2005. This bill supplemented legislation passed earlier in the session, nearly doubling Nebraska’s previous commitment to early childhood programs. Lawmakers’ eyes were focused on the future.

“This changed the paradigm of how we will begin to incorporate 4-year-olds into the state’s funding for public schools,” said Helen Raikes, a professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a member of the board of the Susan A. Buffett Foundation. Raikes’s husband, Nebraska Senator Ron Raikes, chairman of the education committee, was the chief sponsor of the legislation.

The process that led to the passage of the legislation drew praise from legislative analysts. “Nebraska demonstrated what can be accomplished through a combination of good timing, key legislative leadership, and credible research provided at the right time,” said Steffanie Clothier, program manager for the Child Care and Early Education project for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Too often, the common good has to take a back seat to other pressing issues. This time, it became part and parcel of the state’s plan for its own long-term economic growth and stability. To be sure, state coffers were in better fiscal shape than had been projected, but this was no guarantee of success; there were—as always—many competing interests for any budget surplus, Clothier pointed out.

“There were both humanitarian and strong fiscal reasons to make this investment,” said Dan Pedersen, president of both the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and the Susan A. Buffett Foundation. For months, Pedersen worked closely with the Raikeses and others who supported the legislation. “But the case for it, as sound economic policy, as clear-eyed and science-based legislation, had to be made and communicated in a way that does not always happen in the nation’s legislatures.”

The groundwork began years ago, said Pedersen, when advocacy groups began to marshal their evidence, determined to speak with a unified voice. But the tipping point was reached when reliable scientific data—based on studies that consistently verified the value of early childhood programs—became part of lawmakers’ vocabularies, according to Pedersen.

The Path to Successful Policymaking

He described three important influences in the evolution of lawmakers’ thinking: citizens organizing to speak out through the Nebraska Children & Families Foundation and other advocates; skillful work done inside the legislature by concerned lawmakers themselves; and, he said, “the scientific message, getting facts in front of lawmakers, clearly presented in language lawmakers could relate to.” Legislators were also encouraged to visit successful programs. “It’s difficult to demonstrate to state legislators what excellence looks like without showing them.” In this case, legislators got to see the difference a program can make.

For information about commonly used terms in Council publications, see Definitions.